Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Speaking to Ed Schultz, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) stated that the Republicans are "just factually wrong" when they speak of a minimum wage raise as a "job killer." He also referred to taxpayers' subsidizing immensely profitable corporations such as Walmart, McDonald's and Burger King that underpay their employees. Watch:

SANDERS: I say they’re just factually wrong. In my state of Vermont, our minimum wage is $8.60 compared to the national minimum wage of $7.25. We have one of the lowest unemployment rates in America. You have states where there is virtually no minimum wage at all, and their unemployment rate is much higher. The facts just don’t bear it out. ...Right now the taxpayers of this country are subsidizing the McDonalds people, Burger King and Walmart. In Walmart in particular, you have the wealthiest family in the world. They’re worth $100 billion, but the wages and the benefits they provide to their workers are so low that many of these workers go on Medicaid. They go on food stamps. They have to get government help for their housing, so the taxpayers of America end up subsidizing Walmarts, McDonalds, and Burger King. If we raise the minimum wage the workers would actually have enough living, enough income to get off of some of these programs.